


Pandora's Box

by literaryoblivion



Series: Tumblr Ficlets [56]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Art, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-01
Updated: 2014-09-01
Packaged: 2018-02-15 16:03:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2235042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/literaryoblivion/pseuds/literaryoblivion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles helps Derek move from the loft and discovers something in a box that Derek has been keeping from him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pandora's Box

**Author's Note:**

> I received the following prompt on Tumblr: "Sterek AU where basically the only thing that's different is that Derek is a super secret children's art teacher, and the only reason Stiles finds out is because he finds a box full of their art and he's just like "do you have an extra secret kid I dunno about?" and Der is just like "yea, like 17 of them" and Stiles is just like "dayum. I dunno if I can date a dad... even a hot dad" and der just laughs for nine years"
> 
> The Tumblr post for this can be found [here](http://literaryoblivion.tumblr.com/post/93440631453/sterek-au-where-basically-the-only-thing-thats).

Even though he is not nearly as capable as the werewolves he knows and loves (some more than others), Stiles volunteers to help Derek move (because he’s a good sort of boyfriend; he doesn’t know it’s all very new) out of his loft into a more comfortable apartment not full of pain and death and sadness. Really, it’s better for everyone involved; the new place is closer to the pack (and civilization in general) and has some better security measures in place besides an annoying intruder alarm (that goes off far too late in Stiles’s opinion for it to actually be useful).

And okay, so maybe Stiles isn’t helping Derek pack for purely altruistic reasons. He’s kind of curious about what all Derek keeps in his closet and under his bed. Porn? Sex Toys? Stuffed Animals? All of the above? These are things Stiles desperately wants to know (cause he’s weird and incredibly curious, shut up).

Derek’s left to run to the store for more packing tape, and although he left Stiles with explicit instructions to just help pack up the kitchen, as soon as Derek’s left, he takes the opportunity to snoop.

Derek has packed up most of his bedroom himself, although there are still a few open boxes scattered around. Stiles picks his head into a few, but it’s boring things like books (mostly historical fiction, yuck), or exercise equipment. He notices a few boxes in Derek’s closet, but they are mostly clothes. He comes back out to notice a box in the corner he hadn’t seen before in his initial search. It’s not open, but it’s not taped up, the flaps having been folded over in such a way to have them closed.

Stiles decides he’ll just take a little peek to see what’s inside before closing it up and returning to bubble wrap Derek’s mugs. When he opens it, he’s surprised at what he finds.

Among a few other books and CDs, there’s a few pictures. It’s pictures of the pack mostly, of Derek and Cora when he took her back to South America, and there’s even a few rare ones, singed on the corners, that were from before the fire. Stiles feels a tinge of guilt when he looks at them because he knows they are very private and special to Derek.

He goes to set them back down in the box and close it when he notices a stack of paper beneath where the photos have been. It looks like some kind of art, and Stiles thinks he’s already opened it, might as well see what it is. He exchanges the pictures for the art and unfolds the small stack of paper to see pen sketches, watercolors, and mostly crayon drawings of trees and houses and what he thinks is Derek.

They are very obviously from a small child, and the ones of Derek have him flexing his muscles or standing taller than the trees drawn next to him. The drawings are so adorable, and Stiles doesn’t quite know what to do with this information. Where did Derek get them? They look to new and fresh and pristine to be anything Derek or Cora drew when they were little. Did Derek knock up some chick somewhere, and now gets these drawings in exchange for child support payments?

"What are you doing?" Derek growls behind him, and oh shit, he totally didn’t hear Derek come in.

"Uhhhhh, I was looking for… a marker? Yeah, a marker, the other one’s out of ink."

"There’s no markers in there," Derek says, pointing at the box at Stiles’s feet. He doesn’t sound as angry as Stiles thinks he should be, which is good. Confusing, but good.

"Yeah, caught that. Uh… question. Do you have some secret kid somewhere we don’t know about?"

"Uh.. yeah. Like seventeen of them."

Stiles’s eyes practically bug out of his head. “What? I mean damn, that’s some… wow you must be very fertile. I don’t… I don’t know if I can date a dad… not even a hot one.”

Derek laughs (seemingly for nine years, but it’s more like a minute). Stiles stares at him completely lost.

"I’m serious, Derek. Having a kid… multiple kids, that’s… huge. Like, that’s something you should probably tell someone that you’re dating. We’re dating, right?"

Derek steps up behind Stiles, wraps his arms around Stiles’s waist, and kisses his cheek before resting his chin on Stiles’s shoulder.

"Yes, we’re dating. And… the kids aren’t mine. I volunteer at a few of the elementary schools and teach art during the after school program."

"And they drew these for you?"

Derek chuckles, and Stiles can feel the vibrations of it through where Derek is pressed up against his back. “They did. This one,” Derek says, lifting a hand to pull out the one he means from Stiles’s hands and put it on top of the pile, “is my favorite one.”

"Is that… is that me and you?" The drawing is of Derek (well a blobish stick figure he’s pretty sure is supposed to be Derek) and Stiles (a slightly smaller blobby stick figure) holding hands, surrounded by flowers.

Derek nods, his chin digging into Stiles’s shoulder. “They kept asking me if I was married or had a boyfriend or a girlfriend, and when I told them I was dating you, they kept bugging me to see a picture. So I showed ‘em the one of you and I that Scott took after we dealt with the forest nymphs. Hence all the flowers.”

"That was when we first kissed," Stiles adds with a smile. Derek pecks him again on the cheek. "Can I go with you? When you volunteer?"

"You’re usually still in class, though."

Stiles shrugs and turns around in Derek’s arms. “I can skip the last period. I want to see you with them. I may not be hot for dads, but I am definitely hot for teacher,” he says wiggling his eyebrows as he wraps his arms around Derek’s neck.

"Please never say that ever again."

"Only if you say I can go with you."

"Fine."

Stiles pulls Derek into a kiss. “Good. Also, we are framing that drawing and putting it above the fireplace.”

"My new apartment doesn’t have a fireplace."

"Well, we’ll get one that does and put it there."

"We?"

Stiles blushes, stammering, “Well, I mean, maybe not we, I mean…that’s not… I didn’t mean—”

Derek ducks down to kiss him again, stopping his rambling. “We still have time, but… I’d like that.”

"You do?" Stiles whispers.

He nods. “Then they can start drawing us in front of a house instead of in a field of flowers.” Stiles rolls his eyes. “You should come next week. They’ll like you.”

"Of course they will. What’s not to like?"

"Well…"

"Shut up and go pack," Stiles says, shoving playfully at Derek’s chest. He steps to move away, and Derek catches his wrist to pull him in for another kiss.

"I brought back pizza, too. It’s on the table."

Stiles grins against his lips. “You’re the best.” He almost says ‘I love you’ but stops himself in time. He’s already suggested they move in together, but not add declaring his love out loud in the same afternoon.

He gives Derek one last kiss before handing him back the artwork and leaving to get a slice of pizza.

~

He ends up saying I love you anyway because Derek got him Hawaiian pizza even though he hates it. (But he doesn’t think Derek takes it to mean something more. He hopes.)

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on [tumblr](http://literaryoblivion.tumblr.com) or [twitter](http://twitter.com/lit_oblivion).


End file.
